In a recent interview with the Austrian newssite derStandard.at, GNOME designer Jon McCann talks about GNOME OS, the consequences of Canonical leaving GNOME behind, the purported removal of features and the future role of Linux distributions. "I think there was a time when GNOME had kind of a crisis, we didn't know where we wanted to go, we were lacking goals and vision - that was the end of the GNOME2 cycle. So we pulled together and formed a vision where we want to go - and actually did something about it. And now we have been marching on that plan for quite some time."

I for one would really like to see one fully integrated linux-based OS where everything is done to serve the user. Like Apple has managed with their OS X where the UI manages to hide the underlying unix so well that you have to open up a terminal to see its existance.

I would argue that for linux users, that is precisely the opposite of serving the user.

You have to look at your userbase before deciding what features are serving them. This is exactly what Gnome is NOT doing ( in fact they're doing the exact opposite).